Adjust/Zoomd: Despite iOS privacy updates, Meta still tops user acquisition channels

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Despite Apple’s privacy updates final yr, Meta is still a prime channel for user acquisition, in response to a report by cellular consultants Adjust and Zoomd Technologies.

The report additionally discovered that budgets for user acquisition (UA) — the promoting that cellular sport and app firms do to search out paying customers — are rising. It additionally discovered video and show advertisements are dominant, and entrepreneurs are counting on influencers for user acquisition too.

The State of User Acquisition 2022 analysis confirmed how dominant Meta’s platforms are for user acquisition managers. That’s so regardless that Meta’s inventory declined in early 2022, pushed by the corporate’s disappointing user development on Facebook within the fourth quarter and decrease than anticipated income for Q1 2022. Meta largely attributed the slowdown to Apple’s iOS 14.5 privacy modifications and the App Tracking Transparency framework, saying it will value the corporate $10 billion in misplaced revenues in 2022.

In spite of the angst round user acquisition, cellular video games accounted for $93 billion in gross sales in 2021, greater than half of the full $180 billion sport enterprise, in response to market researcher Newzoo.

Despite these headwinds, the outcomes of a survey performed collectively by cellular user acquisition platform Zoomd and cellular advertising analytics platform Adjust present that user acquisition (UA) managers globally are still spending their budgets on Facebook and Instagram.

Specifically, when world user acquisition managers had been requested:

Which was your major media supply for 2021 — Facebook was No. 1 adopted by Google.Which of the next cellular media sources did you utilize — solely Google (No. 1) was forward of Facebook (No. 2) after which Instagram (No. 3).Which media supply carried out finest on your This fall 2021 vacation campaigns — solely Google (No. 1) beat Facebook (No. 2). Which media supply benefitted essentially the most from any funds shift made after Apple’s ATT (iOS 14.5) privacy modifications — Facebook and Google tied for No. 1.This survey was performed within the first quarter, querying world cellular user acquisition managers working with Zoomd and Adjust, a division of AppLovin. The outcomes characterize the solutions from user acquisition managers working in a variety of verticals together with e-commerce, gaming, leisure, fintech, well being & health, way of life, and utilities.

User acquisition rising

During the vacations, Google stood out as a cellular media supply.Among the UA managers surveyed, 72% stated that their funds is growing in 2022. Specifically for iOS, 60% of respondents stated that they’d enhance their UA budgets for Apple’s cellular gadgets.

But it’s not essentially out of affection for Apple. Staying with iOS, “problem find Lifetime Value (LTV) with restricted SKAN insights” (33%), and “missing time to analysis and perceive iOS modifications and finest practices” (25%) had been the 2 largest challenges in maximizing insights from iOS campaigns.

When requested how they’re gauging success of their iOS campaigns, 40% of the surveyed UA managers stated they’re “utilizing a single information kind mannequin targeted on both buy, advert income or engagement,” whereas 21% stated they’re “utilizing customized CV fashions to trace a number of income sorts or occasions on the similar time” or “utilizing information from probabilistic matching.”

Probabilistic refers back to the chance of a sure end result primarily based on previous information patterns and fashions. For instance, the chance of hardcore avid gamers being interested by a sure style of gaming primarily based on historic taking part in information.

DSPs, advert and affiliate networks, and Apple Search Ads

User acquisition views of TikTokDespite the expansion TikTok and Snapchat are experiencing when it comes to media budgets, demand-side platforms (DSPs), advert and affiliate networks, and Apple Search Ads outperformed them and all different platforms not owned by Meta or Google in most classes.

A requirement-side platform (DSP) is software program which allows advertisers and companies to bid on and purchase promoting on a number of exchanges robotically via one interface. An advert community aggregates on-line advertisements from a variety of publishers, serving as an middleman between a writer’s advert availability and advertiser’s wants/demand. And an affiliate community connects publishers interested by serving advertisements promoting services or products the place the writer earns a fee on the sale if a sale happens.

Specifically, when cellular UA managers had been queried “What was your major cellular media supply for user acquisition in 2021” and “After Apple ATT privacy modifications, which media supply benefited essentially the most from any funds shift you made” solely Google and Facebook beat DSPs, advert and affiliate networks, and Apple Search Ads. When the UA managers had been requested “In the final This fall vacation/Christmas campaigns (2021), which cellular media supply carried out finest for you?” solely TikTok beat Ad and Affiliate Networks (however not DSPs and Apple Search Ads). This result’s in-line with the 184% income development eMarketer simply predicted for TikTok within the U.S. in 2022.

TikTok, Snapchat lead among the many remainder of the platforms

Besides Google, Facebook, and Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat carried out the perfect. When the cellular user acquisition managers had been queried which media sources they utilized in 2021, 41% stated that they used TikTok or Snapchat, forward of Twitter (26%), Reddit (13%) and Pinterest (7%) although beneath people who used Google (77%), Facebook (72%) and Instagram (67%). For the query relating to This fall 2021 vacation/Christmas marketing campaign efficiency, TikTok got here in sixth behind solely Google, Facebook, and a three-way tie between Instagram, Apple Search Ads, and affiliate networks.

“Given the privacy-driven modifications in 2021, it’s necessary to grasp how they’re impacting cellular advertising by asking the folks coping with user acquisition each day,” stated Ozan Can Sisman, normal supervisor for MENA at Adjust, in an announcement. “The variety of stunning outcomes, together with the expansion of CTV, and the power of DSPs and Ad and Affiliate Networks, spotlight the significance of qualitative analysis alongside the quantitative analytics and insights Adjust gives our shoppers and the business.”

Omri Argaman, chief development officer at Zoomd, stated in an e-mail to GamesBeat that google grew its funds final yr however not simply due to its potential to focus on promoting towards customers.

“Android can also be rising as a result of iOS is getting costlier,” Argaman stated. “But now that Google is copying the privacy modifications carried out by Apple, I’m anticipating some budgets to return to iOS. And within the user acquisition battle between Meta and Google, Google was harm much less by than Facebook and Instagram.”
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https://venturebeat.com/2022/06/07/adjust-zoomd-despite-ios-privacy-updates-meta-still-tops-user-acquisition-channels/

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